Hacking Academia

Negotiation is one of the most challenging and daunting skillsets for many people to pick up, but is one that can have a hugely beneficial impact on your career. In this video, I unpack the why, what, when, and how of negotiation, from #salary #compensation to #flexible working conditions to enabling #sidegigs to specifying #startup packages & more. 🙏 Please reshare if of interest to you, you...

Applying for PhD positions can be a daunting experience, but doesn’t have to be. In this video, I unpack the ins and outs of two of the key stages of applying for a PhD: the initial approach to a prospective supervisor, typically done over email (although there are many other ways to establish contact), and the interview process itself. 🙏 Please reshare if of interest to you, your colleagues, fri...

In your career you will constantly be applying for opportunities: PhDs, postdocs, tenure-track positions, grants, fellowships and prestigious awards, just to name a few. A key part of being successful at this process is benchmarking yourself – evaluating how your track record and capabilities stack up, both to the specific opportunity, and to someone at your career stage and with who’s had your op...

Writing good conference papers in fields like robotics takes planning ahead of time, but there’s also lots you can do close to the final submission deadline. In this new video, I provide a range of specific tips focused primarily on the final paper writing stages when you have a complete or near-complete draft paper, and are refining and tweaking it for submission. I cover concepts ranging from th...

Getting started on applying for and winning grant funding 💰 can be overwhelming, especially for early career researchers like postdocs in academia. One of the typical ways researchers get into the funding ecosystem is through small grant programs, both internal to their organisation and through external funding bodies. In this video I cover key concepts and plenty of advice for how to effectively...

Finding 🔎 a great #PhD supervisor is just as much about finding the *right* PhD supervisor for *you*, given your interests, working style and support requirements. The right supervisor fit for you could be completely different to the right supervisor fit for someone else. In this video I go through some of the key concepts 💡 you should keep in mind when searching for a PhD supervisor, from the m...

“I can’t go to dinner with my friends, I have to get this paper finished” 😔 “I can’t go to the beach / snow / mountains this weekend, I have to get these experiments running” 😟 “I can’t play with the kids, I have to get this grant submitted” 😥 “I have to” is one of the most damaging phrases that most people say on a regular basis, and there’s an easy fix to snap yourself out of it. In this new...

#Fellowships are a particular type of grant funding opportunity with particular considerations to keep in mind for anyone thinking of applying. In this new video 🎥, I unpack what fellowships are, and a number of key concepts to consider when applying for them, ranging from writing to the risk aversion level of the funding scheme, to scaling your fellowship pitch to suit the seniority of the fello...

REJECTED! 😭 😭 😭 How often has your heart sunk as you read that e-mail, or received that phone call. Whether it’s a job application, promotion, grant or fellowship proposal, award or prize nomination – whatever it is, rejection can take a toll. And, at least for me, many hundreds of rejections later, it’s never gotten “easy”. Easier perhaps, but never easy! In my newest video, I cover key concep...

Interviewing well is a key skill that will serve you well for your entire professional life, both for interviews themselves but also for a range of related activities like presenting. In this new two part video series in my hacking academia line of tutorial videos, I cover the key considerations to interviewing well – including understanding the context, the interview structure and related areas,...

This video, part 2 of a series, focuses on the interview process itself, as well as a number of general principles of interviewing well. The video is focused on the example of an entry-level academic faculty hire, but a lot of the concepts are more broadly applicable to interviewing for many types of position both inside and outside academia. Please reshare if useful 🙏 Part 1 covering the intervi...

Should I Stay or Should I Go? No, not the song by punk rock band The Clash! When you get your #PhD, one of the common pieces of advice you may hear is that you should move labs, cities, perhaps even countries, for your next position. In my new #hackingacademia video, I unpack some of the rationale behind this common statement, and walk through a bunch of reasons why, and why not, to move labs and...

Intelligence and intellectual capability! Can you find a more controversial and debated topic? Especially how they do or don’t affect success of all types in life, from professional to personal, and simply being happy. Yet we need to tackle these challenging topics if we are to progress. In my new video, “Intelligence: Overrated, But Also Under Accounted For”, I tackle two key concepts that are of...

With all the coverage of #ChatGPT3 , #generativeai , the speculated demise of #AutonomousVehicles and the ever present dialogue around #robotics , #artificialintelligence , and existential threats and opportunities, the need to clearly, accurately and compellingly communicate the key concepts about these technologies has never been greater. In this #HackingAcademia video, I summarize a stack of ke...

Most academics and researchers in a university context will engage in some sort of work with industry, government or public organisations at some stage in their career. However, how this is done can vary hugely: the experiences of a biotechnologist engaging with industry in the agriculture sector can be worlds apart from that of a computer scientist engaging with the technology sector. One of the...

If you are in the business of applying for #grants or #fellowships , you are in most cases in the business of writing #rejoinders ! The rejoinder is a critical stage in many grant applications where you get the chance to increase the proposal’s prospects, potentially getting it across the line to acceptance and award. For what is often just a few hundred carefully chosen words, you can make a very...

I’ve been fortunate to travel ✈ a lot over the last 20 years, both professionally and personally. One thing I’ve refined over many years is my so-called “carry on only” baggage game for work trips specifically. This is where you only take carry-onto-the-plane baggage and no checked-into-the-plane-hold baggage. The idea being on busy trips you substantially reduce the chance of your checked baggage...

📣 Excited to share my latest video: “Key Considerations for Transitioning to Leadership Roles” 🎥🌟 Are you considering a leap from small team leader into more senior leadership positions in academia or research? This video is for you! I delve into essential aspects such as: ✅ Key considerations & strategies for a smooth transition ✅ Benefits of stepping into leadership roles ✅ Common hesi...

Are you one of those people who get excited when a new robot or autonomous tech demo goes viral? 🌐 Me too! But did you know that not all videos are created equal? It’s crucial to understand the varying motivations behind them and what you can (and can’t) infer from them, and why. In this video, I break it down into some key points: 1) The motivation behind releasing a demo video 🎯 2) The variati...

🤔 “It’s what wasn’t said that’s most interesting…” My new video covers the significance of implied messaging in settings such as job interviews, grant rejoinders, job referee reports and more. I highlight the importance of recognizing underlying messages in communication, and effectively using implicit messaging in your own comms. Check out the tutorial now in the video! 👉 Please reshare if usef...

Having good mentors in an academic career is like having a superpower! In this video, I unpack the many benefits of having mentors, how the mentoring relationship can work, and tips for how to go about finding good mentors and avoid bad ones. 🙏 Please reshare if of interest to you, your colleagues, friends and/or family! Complete topic list and timestamps: 📌 (0:00) Introduction to Mentoring 📌 (...